Never sneak into your dark house after a late-night fishing trip.
No matter how nice you may be about not waking your wife, you never know when she has decided to move the furniture around.
Speaking from experience here: When your big toe hits one of the now moved objects, you will fall in dreadful pain, and it will seem that your whole body is hurt. You cannot walk, cannot function properly, and you suffer until the injury heals.
This same thing happens in churches. We may take the lead on a project, or decide just to help, and we share our feelings just a little bit more than usual.
Suddenly, we discover that someone — a pastor or other leader in the church; a friend and co-worker, or even God himself — has changed things up.
We feel hurt and shrink away from that type of pain.
But until you deal with that pain, and allow it to heal, the entire body of Christ will not function as it should. If one is hurt, we all hurt, in some way or another.
I will not attempt to tell you what to do to be healed, but forgiveness and seeking God first are the best places to begin.
You may have to go to another person to talk, openly and honestly. They may not even be aware that they have caused you hurt.
Until we learn to recognize and assist someone else, the body of Christ cannot and will not operate to full potential.
Granted, God does not have to have us to accomplish what He has purposed, but we need Him, and that purpose may include helping someone to heal.
Are you a "big toe" in need of a loving touch?
Perhaps you know of someone that is. God still loves those toes, and gave them prominence and a role of protecting so many others.
Seek the healing. Pursue the ministry of reconciliation. Let God help you to help others to rejoin the body of Christ.
My friend, God is looking for "big toes" that He can love and heal. Won't you allow Him back in today?
Be restored, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Rev. Richard Helms serves at Miracle Acres Ministries, 3187 E. James Lee Blvd., in Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: HELMS: Face pain head on, seek healing